This is my 4th grow and my first hydroponically. I'm growing 2 strains for a cancer patient; A tall strain, most likely sativa, which is taken for pain. I've had this and it's very strong and buzzy. The second is a short strain, higher producer which is used to make oil for ingesting.
Up until now I had used soil, but got sick and tired of dealing with the dirt, so wanted to go hydro. Plus I'm quite techi, so making stuff appealed to me. I'd looked around and made a couple of ez-cloners which worked well. So I made larger versions to veg in, which also worked well, but ended up using the higher pressure misters for the flower hydro units. I have 2 rooms on a flip flop with 2 trays in each room. Each room at this moment has a tray that's at week 3 and a tray at week 7. The reason it's setup like this is before I had the second pair of trays in I still wanted to spread the electrical draw over 24 hours, so had one tray in each room to start. It would have been easier the other way, but I didn't want energy spikes etc. It also means I'm now stuck with 2 different strains on the same res which has proven not to be ideal. I originally had the sprayers on all the time, but as the weather got warmer the res's were getting too hot, so I put the misters on a timer. I added the timers around week 4 of the first pair of trays. The smallest increment timer I had was 15 minutes, so it was 15 on and 15 off. There's always a half inch of water in the trays, so I thought it would be OK. Needless to say root growth was dramatic. I guess as they started to dry out they would grow roots looking for water. I ordered a shorter increment timer, as I figured extreme root growth may be detrimental. So, now have the misters on for 6 and off for 9 minutes.
The problem is this: I am now just about to hit week 7 on one pair of trays and what started out looking good has ended up looking like the yield will be very low. I have 2 X 1000 HPS in each room. This was my first mistake. I should have gone for 3 600's, but that's by the by. In dirt I'd managed about 3/4 pound per light. I may be wrong, but I don't think it's going to be anything near that this time out. I hit a problem at week 3: I am using the Lucas ratio, but one night in early week 3 somehow the ppm's jumped from around 800 to 1160 the next morning. I don't know if the meter was playing up or they just drank a whole load of water and no nutes. Anyway I saw burn right away in the small plants and within days in the larger plants. I ran fresh water for about 5 days then quarter strength for a week, then half strength for a week and this week up around 750 ppm. I should now start flushing ready to chop. The smaller plants have shown yellow lower foliage since pretty soon after the burn. The taller plants seemed not to be effected so badly, but just this week I noticed they were quite leathery and purple edges to the leaves. Plus the smaller plants started to show dark spots on some older leaves, which I think may be P deficiency. See pics. And generally the buds started out looking huge, but just haven't filled in. The second pair of trays which are at week 3 are looking good and healthy, though the smaller strain is looking a little light green in places. These plants are on their own res and I have slowly brought the ppm's up (currently in the 580).
I have about 30 plants to go in behind the week 7 ones and am wondering if I should abandon hydro and go back to dirt.
Anyway, here are photos and I'd appreciate any advice about the health of the plants, what the deficiencies appear to be etc.
Here's the shorter strain at week 7 with a couple of the bigger strain making up the numbers due to a cloning mishap. 13 plants in here.
This is the taller strain at 7 weeks. Looking at the thickness of some of the stems makes me think they should be much fatter. The tallest of these is 42 inches and the shortest 29.
These are the week 3 tall strain
These are the week 3 short strain
This is a damaged leaf from the 7 week short strain.
Any help or advice appreciated.
Up until now I had used soil, but got sick and tired of dealing with the dirt, so wanted to go hydro. Plus I'm quite techi, so making stuff appealed to me. I'd looked around and made a couple of ez-cloners which worked well. So I made larger versions to veg in, which also worked well, but ended up using the higher pressure misters for the flower hydro units. I have 2 rooms on a flip flop with 2 trays in each room. Each room at this moment has a tray that's at week 3 and a tray at week 7. The reason it's setup like this is before I had the second pair of trays in I still wanted to spread the electrical draw over 24 hours, so had one tray in each room to start. It would have been easier the other way, but I didn't want energy spikes etc. It also means I'm now stuck with 2 different strains on the same res which has proven not to be ideal. I originally had the sprayers on all the time, but as the weather got warmer the res's were getting too hot, so I put the misters on a timer. I added the timers around week 4 of the first pair of trays. The smallest increment timer I had was 15 minutes, so it was 15 on and 15 off. There's always a half inch of water in the trays, so I thought it would be OK. Needless to say root growth was dramatic. I guess as they started to dry out they would grow roots looking for water. I ordered a shorter increment timer, as I figured extreme root growth may be detrimental. So, now have the misters on for 6 and off for 9 minutes.
The problem is this: I am now just about to hit week 7 on one pair of trays and what started out looking good has ended up looking like the yield will be very low. I have 2 X 1000 HPS in each room. This was my first mistake. I should have gone for 3 600's, but that's by the by. In dirt I'd managed about 3/4 pound per light. I may be wrong, but I don't think it's going to be anything near that this time out. I hit a problem at week 3: I am using the Lucas ratio, but one night in early week 3 somehow the ppm's jumped from around 800 to 1160 the next morning. I don't know if the meter was playing up or they just drank a whole load of water and no nutes. Anyway I saw burn right away in the small plants and within days in the larger plants. I ran fresh water for about 5 days then quarter strength for a week, then half strength for a week and this week up around 750 ppm. I should now start flushing ready to chop. The smaller plants have shown yellow lower foliage since pretty soon after the burn. The taller plants seemed not to be effected so badly, but just this week I noticed they were quite leathery and purple edges to the leaves. Plus the smaller plants started to show dark spots on some older leaves, which I think may be P deficiency. See pics. And generally the buds started out looking huge, but just haven't filled in. The second pair of trays which are at week 3 are looking good and healthy, though the smaller strain is looking a little light green in places. These plants are on their own res and I have slowly brought the ppm's up (currently in the 580).
I have about 30 plants to go in behind the week 7 ones and am wondering if I should abandon hydro and go back to dirt.
Anyway, here are photos and I'd appreciate any advice about the health of the plants, what the deficiencies appear to be etc.
Here's the shorter strain at week 7 with a couple of the bigger strain making up the numbers due to a cloning mishap. 13 plants in here.
This is the taller strain at 7 weeks. Looking at the thickness of some of the stems makes me think they should be much fatter. The tallest of these is 42 inches and the shortest 29.
These are the week 3 tall strain
These are the week 3 short strain
This is a damaged leaf from the 7 week short strain.
Any help or advice appreciated.
